Is delayed obedience disobedience?

The saying, “Delayed obedience is disobedience,” is heard sometimes in advice to Christian parents and disciples. The idea behind the saying is that obedience requires prompt action. When an authority gives a command, we should jump to it, swiftly and happily. When God gives a command, His children should respond immediately with love and joyful alacrity. Any delay or partial compliance is an act of insubordination.

There are passages of Scripture that support the idea that delayed obedience is disobedience. The psalmist, for example, says, “I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands” (Psalm 119:60). We are to “seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). When it comes to obeying God’s command to repent and believe in Christ, “now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). No one should delay becoming a Christian.

Other passages seem to allow for a delay in obedience. For example, Jesus told a parable about two sons:

Jesus’ point in the parable, however, was not that delayed obedience is sanctioned but that eventual obedience is better than outright disobedience. In the context of the parable, sinners who come to faith late in life are better off than religious people who talk a good talk but never bend the knee to Christ.

An instance of true disobedience through delayed action is found in Numbers 14. The Israelites, on the verge of the Promised Land, rebelled against the Lord and refused to enter the land. In response, God consigned them to wander in the wilderness for forty years: “Turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert” (Numbers 14:25). But the next morning, the people decided to obey the Lord after all: “Early the next morning they set out for the highest point in the hill country, saying, ‘Now we are ready to go up to the land the Lord promised. Surely we have sinned!’” (Numbers 14:40). Moses warned them not to go, that it was too late to obey now. “Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the hill country. . . . Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah” (Numbers 14:44–45).

So, the people of Israel tried to postpone their obedience to God’s command to enter the Promised Land. And their delay by one day, occasioned by a lack of faith, proved disastrous. Their failure to follow orders at the right time was an act of rebellion and ungodly fear.

But we should also consider the case of the returned exiles in Ezra’s day. Ezra discovered that many Israelites had married foreign women, which broke God’s rule of being separate and holy (Ezra 9:12). Ezra reacted with deep sorrow, fasting, and prayer (Ezra 9:35) as he confessed the community’s sin before God. The people who had intermarried were convicted of their sin and took an oath to separate from their foreign wives and preserve their covenant with God (Ezra 10:1–5).

The situation seemed to demand urgent action because of the severity of the sin, but the people did not rush into a decision; rather, they decided that “this matter cannot be taken care of in a day or two” (Ezra 10:13). They proposed a time of investigation to sort out the details of an admittedly complicated matter: “‘Let everyone in our towns who has married a foreign woman come at a set time, along with the elders and judges of each town.’ . . . Ezra the priest selected men who were family heads, one from each family division, and all of them designated by name [and] they sat down to investigate the cases” (Ezra 10:14, 16–17). The examination period lasted three months.

In the case of the returned exiles, the time delay was not due to indifference, fear, or a lackadaisical attitude. Far from being a rebellious act, their delayed obedience arose from caution, fairness, and a desire to arrive at proper judgments.

A delay in obedience is often the result of procrastination, fear, or a desire not to inconvenience ourselves. In such cases, the delay represents disobedience. James 4:17 states, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it” (NLT).

But, in certain cases, a delay in obedience is the result of careful consideration of how best to obey. Sometimes, extricating ourselves from a complex moral or relational quagmire in obedience to God requires deliberation, discernment, and proper timing.